E-SPLOST vote nears, final Hall Co. Schools public meeting set for Monday

GAINESVILLE - Hall County School System officials have spent the last few weeks trying to rally support for an upcoming penny sales tax vote for education. They have one final chance on Monday to publicly present their case prior to the November 3 vote.

 

District Superintendent Will Schofield said in a recent interview with AccessWDUN he personally has spoken at about 10 different civic clubs, outlining the basic plans Hall County has for using any money that might be generated by E-SPLOST V. (Gainesville and Buford City Schools also would share in the proceeds). Plus, the school district has held six public meetings around the county.

 

"We've had one in each of the traditional high school clusters [and] had very limited response - anywhere from 12 to 25 individuals that have shown up at each of those meetings," said Schofield.

 

A seventh and final public meeting has been scheduled for Monday, October 19 at the Board of Education Headquarters on Green Street in Gainesville. It begins at 6 p.m. following the school board work session.

 

As he's traveled the county, Schofield said he's seen two different "schools of thought" on extending the penny sales tax for education.

 

"One is, I think - overwhelmingly - people agree that the best way to fund capital improvements is with the one-penny sales tax over either a local property tax increase or selling 30, 40 year bonds," said Schofield.

 

He said there's also a group that hesitates on extending the tax.

 

"There's also the feeling, depending on which school an individual is representing, there's often a feeling of 'what are you doing for me lately, where's the piece of pie in here for my local school' and that's to be expected," said Schofield.

 

"What we have to do is balance equity with the fact that we want everybody to feel like they're part of the SPLOST program."

 

Part of the issue is outlining specific projects that would be funded by E-SPLOST V. Money from the referendum cannot be used for personnel or operations, but is set aside for capital projects and items specific to the classroom - technology, for example.

 

"We're assuming we'll spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million a year to put technology devices in classrooms - and that's for all 33 of our schools," said Schofield.

 

Schofield said the school board also is committed to constructing fine arts facilities at North Hall, East Hall, Johnson and West Hall High Schools.

 

The list can be somewhat fluid, though, for a couple of reasons.

 

"Particularly for the last eight years, we've had tremendous

variations in terms of student enrollment growth and where that growth has shown up...so as we build new space, we want to build it where the students are, so we're not going to jump out there and say exactly where we would build new space" he said.

 

The other issue is aging facilities. Schofield said right now, there are some $100 million worth of repair and construction needs at current facilities.

 

"We generally replace roofs, put in new heating and air systems based on age, but when a system fails or when a roof fails, that's the system or that's the roof that we're going to replace."

 

Schofield said if taxpayers can't attend Monday evening's meeting, he'd like them to visit the school system web site and watch a video (HYPERLINK: http://www.hallco.org/esplost/) that outlines what the county school system has used proceeds from E-SPLOST measures that have passed before.